From Germany to MA - Anybody familiar with H1-B?

[ZipZap]

Thanks Iserelle for sharing your detailed experience... that was the kind of info I was looking for.

I am still married (and I hope it stays that way ;-) and not in a hurry anyway, so I wait and see.

[joninusa]

Hi ZipZap

I used H1Base services and I have to admit that they worked perfectly. The people at H1Base help you with absolutely everything - first they work on your resume (CV) to make it so much better - then they actually keep finding and sending your resume to hundreds and hundreds of Companies that actually sponsor/apply for H1B visas. Plus they just really support you and help you in a number of really important ways all the way through the process. I got my H1B visa thanks to them.

I was really impressed with everything H1Base did and I recommend them 100%.

[sparklingstars]

Well I find it important to share my experience with H1Base. I was looking for a job in the Biotech sector and simply wanted someone to apply for me as it was getting quite taxing for me, making endless applications, filling out forms on company databases etc,while managing my present job. H1Base came up as a company that not only applied for the candidate but found the niche of H1B sponsoring companies that I may not be able to find by myself. So I took their Pro elite service that costs 300 dollars. Setting up my account etc was easy and there was immediate email from the customer service. From there, things were not that pretty. They 'worked' on my resume, meaning that they made it worse. They had haphazardly put together few sentences from my resume in a sometimes, ungrammatical fashion and seemed to have put no thought into it at all. I had to rework the resume. I did get a response from a 'personal counselor' who seemed to suggest that they will match my profile to the relevant jobs. He was all too sweet and implied that they would match my profile and begin work on my applications.It again looked like a mindful process. It turns out they had sent my resume to no place at all. There are a couple of options in their profile-Healthcare, IT, teaching etc. None related to Biotech. When I tried the Healthcare option, it went to hospitals and people in the nursing profession. Having even discussed, EXACTLY the kind of job I was looking for, the 'personal counselor' did not tell me that they had no options to send it where my skills would fit. Seeing the list of the hospitals my resume was sent to, I feel that it might have simply bounced off due to the spam filters. It would have been different to have reasonable expectations from a company. I never expected them to 'get me a job'. I did expect them to offer what they promised and be honest in the business, communicating what they actually do clearly. If they did that though, they might be out of business.
However, H1Base has simply used that 'no guarantee' as an excuse to cheat customers. It is worse given that the customers are usually in need of a job and the financial strain is worse on them.
I do feel cheated. It is a pity that such companies continue to thrive and fool people.
It is next to impossible to actually get to speak to somebody through their phone system. The answering machine repeats sentences, and one can never get to a real customer service rep. If I do manage to get to leave a voice message, Nobody replies. When I wrote to my 'personal counselor', he wrote back after me leaving messages on his phone etc, and not immediately. His reply was cold and justifying of the company.
It is a scam. I feel silly for having fallen for it. And wish to warn others. An employment agency or a recruitment cell would probably be better. Certainly not H1Bse that preys on people needing jobs. Stay away from this one.

[sparklingstars]

They gave me a 50% refund eventually after some persistent efforts.